two days without me... what will they do?

My kids are going to have one heck of a surprise when I announce to them on Tuesday that they will have a sub for two days. I'm going to be out of the classroom for two days this week (and one next week). Some of my kids are going to love this. Some of them are probably going to be pretty disappointed. I hate it. When you order a substitute at my school, you're not always guaranteed to get one. This usually means you get a teacher on break one hour and an in building sub the next and then... This requires me to sketch out my plans pretty much moment by moment. One day of my kids  not getting anything done, I could deal with, but two days? Oh no. Since I have to come back for soccer practice on Wednesday and two soccer games on Thursday, I'm going to let them know that I will indeed be checking behavior notes each day. They might just get a phone call home the day of their bad behavior if they dare cause problems...

I'm not so much worried about their behavior (they've already got a reputation for being good for subs since I set such high expectations for them), but worried about them not getting through the editing process very thoroughly. I feel bad, I think I'm a much better reading teacher than I am a writing teacher. There's just so much to go over with these kids. It's not just incomplete sentences, it's split infinitives, run-on sentences, incorrect verb tenses.... and how do you explain a split infinitive to a kid who can barely spell and doesn't even know the difference between subject and predicate. I feel like I'm failing them in this regard because I simply can't break down my knowledge enough to reach them. Now, on our heavy writing week, I'm going to be teaching them via worksheets for two days. Joy.

Oh well, I'm currently enjoying a very delicious egg sandwich at one of my favorite coffee shops. I'm manned with my curriculum, lesson plans and the Internet. If I have to, I will make my directions so clear my kids could teach themselves (not that they'd be that proactive...).

In other news... amazon.com should have a copy of the cd Songs From The Voice Volume 2. Um... so great. I got a sneak copy from my church (http://www.ecclesiahouston.org/index_flash.html) today and it is wonderful. It has songs from Tara Leigh Cobble, Matt Wertz, Jill Paquette and Lori and Don Chaffer (of Waterdeep fame). My pastor is working on a bible project called The Voice and in the midst of the project they challenged a bunch of amazing singers to rediscover the bible and worship music through a new voice and lens. Who's not for rediscovery? Who's not for amazing music? Check it out.